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Stamp Act
Tax on all paper products
Official stamp/seal on all paper items (proof that tax was paid)
Legal documents
Licenses
Newspapers
Pamphlets
Playing cards
Purchased only with valuable silver coins
If you didn’t purchase = fined or jailed
Protested Stamp Act, feeling rights were violated
Direct Tax
(in your face tax) -
Sugar Act of 1764
Indirect tax (out of sight = out of of mind)
Duties on molasses and sugar -
Declaratory Act
Parliament declares it has power to make laws for the colonies “in all cases whatsoever”
Parliament passes this to save face -
Townshed acts
Taxes on glass, lead, paints, and tea
Searched for smuggled goods
Sons of Liberty start to do violent acts
British soldiers arrive to protect tax collectors -
The Boston Massacre
Fights between troops and Bostonians were common
March 5, 1770: soldier strikes colonists
Crowd gathers and hassles soldier, throwing snowballs and shouting insults.
More troops arrive, colonists get more and more angry
“Fire if you dare!”
This became known as the Boston Massacre -
Tea Act (Not a tax)
Passed in 1773 and allowed British East India Company (BEIC) to sell tea directly to colonists
Lower Prices than colonist merchant prices
Tax Tea cheaper than smuggled tea
Less smuggling = more tax money
Colonial Merchants feared BEIC would put them out of business -
Boston Tea Party
Members of Sons of Liberty Dump over 340 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor
“Boston harbor is a teapot tonight!”
Caused problems for loyalists/Tories
Loyalist/Tory = a person in the colonies who remains “loyal” to the King and Great Britain -
Intolerable Acts
Passed to punish Boston for Tea Party
Boston Harbor Closed until tea paid for
Massachusetts Charter canceled
Royal officials had trial in Britain
Quartering Act required colonists to house soldiers
“If a soldier comes knocking at the door… you’re sleeping on the floor”
Large amount of land given to Quebec
Genera; Thomas Gage became new governor of Massachusetts -
Quartering Act
Quartering Act required colonists to house soldiers
“If a soldier comes knocking at the door… you’re sleeping on the floor” -
First Continental Congress
~All colonies but Georgia have representatives
~Voted to send a "Statement of grievances"
~Voted to boycott all British Trade
~Patrick Henry - VA rep. urged colonists to unite against Britain -
1,000’s of Redcoats in Boston
General Gage brings thousands of British soldiers to Boston with more on the way. -
Midnight ride of Paul Revere
Paul Revere rides to warn the Sons of Liberty in Lexington and Concord that the “British are coming… The British are coming…” -
Battles of Lexington & Concord
Battle of Lexington -
1st battle of American Revolutionary War
“Shot heard round the world” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
BRITISH Victory
Battle of Concord -
-Americans Stop British and force them to retreat back to boston -
Capture of Fort Ticonderoga
Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen capture the fort
Get all supplies in the fort including cannons
AMERICAN Victory -
Second Continental Congress meet
Print $$$$
Set up post office
Created Continental money led by George Washington
Set Olive Branch asking King to protect their rights
King hires 30,000 Hessians Soldiers in response -
Battle of Bunker Hill
Fought on Breed’s Hill
“Don’t Fire until you see the whites of their eyes” - William Presctt
BRITISH Victory (Americans ran out of ammunition) British learn defeating Americans would NOT be easy. -
Washington arrives on outskirts of Boston with Continental troops
Realizes men are disorganized and need discipline.
Need weapons -
“Common Sense” published by Thomas Paine
Pamphlet inspires more colonists to become patriots
“Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, ‘TIS TIME TO PART” -Thomas Paine, Common Sense -
British Surrender Boston
Washington believes his army is ready and weapons arrive
Washington puts cannons on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston
BRITISH retreat - AMERICAN Victory -
Second continental Congress meet again
Debate on declaring independence
Thomas Jefferson is the primary author of the document -
Second continental Congress votes for independence
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The declaration of independence is signed!
